Wednesday, November 7, 2018

Real...

It makes
me sad that I failed to fully appreciate all the lessons I learned from my
father growing up, but seeing the best part of him (and my wife) in both my kids
now reminds me that many of those lessons were still passed on…

The following is an excerpt from the Bio I was asked to put together by the treasurer of my nonprofit for our new website ...

During my
childhood, my father emphasized sports and chores as a way of teaching me and
my siblings about the value of hard work and goal-setting. As soon as we were old enough, we were
required to obtain jobs, especially if we wanted anything beyond the basic
needs of food, shelter and clothing. In 6th grade, I asked my father
for a pair of Nike tennis shoes, as
most of the kids at school were wearing them and I wanted to be part of the ‘in’
crowd. He said we couldn’t afford it but that he had an idea. The next day,
after school, he took me to the grocery store where we immediately headed to
the cereal aisle. He grabbed a box of Wheaties off the shelf. On the back of
the box was a coupon for a pair of Pony
tennis shoes if you mailed in $5 with it. Upon leaving the store I noticed that
our old lawnmower was in the back of my dad’s Datsun pickup truck that he drove
for 15+ years. We later stopped at an older couple’s home, who I knew were out
of town. The grass was very tall, but I got busy, thinking about the feeling of
those Pony tennis shoes soon to be
on my feet. Three hours later, I was sweating profusely, the task complete. When
we arrived back at the house, my dad gave me a $5 bill and I quickly cut the
coupon off the box, addressed and stamped the envelope, dropped the money
inside, sealed it and put it in the mailbox, raising the red flag to alert the
mailman that he had something to pick up. Two weeks later, I had my first
‘cool’ pair of kicks. More important, I had a great life lesson about planning
and working for what you want.